photograph by Ted Leather
In 1851 construction began on a long row of three-story-and-basement homes along the north side of East 18th Street between First and Second Avenues. Completed the following year, their Italianate design included arched, double-doored entrances. Delicate leafy carving filled their spandrels, flanked by scrolled, foliate brackets upholding dentiled cornices. Similar brackets upheld the cast metal terminal cornices.
Among the nearly identical homes was 212 East 18th Street (renumbered 333 in 1865). Its initial owners remained only five years, advertising the house in the New York Morning Courier on March 19, 1856: "For Sale--The three story and basement brick front house No. 212 East Eighteenth street. Completely modern. Price $9000. Possession first of May." (The asking price would translate to about $343,000 in 2025.)
The ad was answered by Isaac D. Brodek and his wife Hannah. Born in 1812, Brodek was in the cap business at 125 Maiden Lane with Joseph Aden. Even financially comfortable families rented unused rooms. In 1860, for instance, the Brodeks leased rooms on the third floor to Joseph W. Chadwick, a clerk; and John Meehan, who was a contractor.
In April 1861, the Brodeks advertised, "To Let--from the first of May, third floor of the modern built house 212 East Eighteenth street, at a reasonable rate, to a small family of adults."
The "small family of adults" who moved in was Brodek's partner, Joseph Aden, and his wife, Rosetta. The amiable situation would extend for decades. The men changed their trade from caps to "trimmings" (accessories like bows, linings, and feathers used by milliners and apparel makers) around the time the Adens moved in. They would eventually open a fur business, I. D. Brodek & Co., at 5 Howard Street.
The four adults would have had at least one servant. Despite what must have been snug conditions, they were joined by the Lande family around 1865. The couple had two children, Rebecca and Solomon. Sadly, 9-year-old Rebecca Lande died here on September 4, 1866. The New York Herald noted that the funeral would be held at 9:00 a.m. two days later "from the residence of J. [sic] D. Brodek."
The Landes would continue to rent rooms at least through 1869, the year that Solomon Lande entered the College of the City of New York.
It is unclear if either Brodek or Aden was involved in music, but the 1880 A Dictionary of Music and Musicians noted that the "large and comprehensive library" of the Philharmonic Society of New York, "is kept at No. 333 East 18th Street." The tome would repeat the fact until its 1894 edition.
In the meantime, Isaac D. Brodek died on January 5, 1885. His will shocked many, including his extended relatives. The New York World reported, "Brodek devised his personal estate...to his wife's sister-in-law, Mrs. Rebecca Boxsius." On April 2, 1889, the newspaper reported that the will "is being contested by a score or more of his nieces and nephews."
Interestingly, Brodek bequeathed the East 18th Street house to Rosetta Aden. On, March 16, 1887, the same day that the title was transferred, she re-transferred it to Hannah Brodek.
The Italianate-style stoop railings survive. Typical of the period, the entrance to the English basement was tucked into the stoop. S-shaped "shutter dogs" at the lower side of the basement and parlor windows seen here once kept shutters firmly opened in place.
Hannah sold 333 East 18th Street to Thomas K. Foster within the year. In 1888 it was operated as a boarding house. Among the residents were Charles W. White, a contractor; engineer John Hewitt; Maggie A. Duffy, a teacher in the primary department of Grammar School No. 77 on First Avenue between 84th and 85th Streets; and Dr. S. H. Vehslage. Veshlage became involved with a heart breaking case in 1889 when he was called to the home of Henry Hashagen at 220 Avenue A. Hashagen's young daughter had been bitten by a dog that summer. Two previous physicians had not recognized the symptoms of hydrophobia and by the time Veshlage was called in, the disease was too advanced to help her.
In 1891, Foster sold 333 East 18th Street to Dr. Serr and his wife, Elise. They continued to take in a few boarders, including Charles J. Collins and his mother, Ellen, here by 1896. The unmarried Collins worked for the city as a clerk in the Department of Docks. In 1896, he earned $1,200 a year, and the following year his salary was raised to $1,500 (about $57,800 today).
Dr. Serr died around 1900 and the following year Elise Serr sold 333 East 18th Street to George Albert Zabriskie. Born in 1868, George was unmarried. Moving into the house with him were his parents--John Albert Zabriskie and Martha Lyon Knox Zabriskie--and George's paternal grandmother, Patience Morgan Zabriskie and maternal grandfather, George Knox. Interestingly, Ellen and Charles Collins remained as boarders with the new owners.
Born in Ireland in 1815, George Knox came to New York City in 1851. He founded a wholesale wrapping paper business on Fulton Street. In the summer of 1860, as he was walking past a construction site at Ninth Avenue and 26th Street, a heavy cornice fell on him. The New York Times reported, "His neck was broken and his skull fractured. Dr. Bumstead, who attended him, declared that he could not live more than twenty-four hours." Bumstead visited his room in St. Luke's Hospital a week later and found that Knox was not only still living, "but gaining strength." Two additional physicians were brought in. "None of them could explain how it was possible for Knox to live with a broken neck," said the article.
George Knox was a patient of St. Luke's Hospital for two years, and after his discharge he returned to his wrapping business. He would suffer another life-altering accident a few years later. The New York Times reported, "While in St. Louis, he met with an accident which resulted in the forming of a cataract in his left eye. On account of his neck, the physicians did not dare to operate, and he lost his sight in that eye."
Patience Morgan Zabriskie, the widow of Captain John B. Zabriskie, died in the house on November 29, 1905 at the age of 88. Her funeral was held in the parlor two days later. Another funeral would be held there the following year. George Knox died on June 28, 1906 at the age of 91. The funeral was held on the 30th.
By then, Charles J. Collins, still unmarried, had risen to secretary of the Department of Docks. He and Ellen still boarded here. On October 25, 1909, Charles got a shave in Louis de Kisi's barbershop at 336 Third Avenue. As he started to leave, according to the New York Herald, "he complained of feeling ill." De Kisi sat him in a chair and sent someone for a doctor. He died before help could arrive. The New York Times said, "Death is believed to have been due to heart disease."
The parlor would be the setting of two more Zabriskie funerals. John Albert died on February 4, 1915 at the age of 68, and Martha L. Zabriskie died at the age of 88 on January 17, 1927. Never married, George Albert Zabriskie moved to Ormond Beach, Florida where he would die in 1954 at the age of 85.
The residence quickly became a rooming house, with Berta Gladstone's Nursery School in the basement level. Her advertisement in The Daily Worker on November 19, 1932 described, "Children of ages four to six now being enrolled in the Kindergarten of our nursery school," adding, "adequate schooling and ideal all day care."
In April 1931, 18-year-old Mae Martin left her home in Providence, Rhode Island for New York City where she intended to become a "dance hall hostess," according to The New York Times. She took a furnished room here and, when she was unsuccessful in finding a job, she partnered with two men, Henry Kerber, a diamond setter, and Emery A. Bishop, a wagon driver, in a much different venture. Three weeks after moving into 333 East 18th Street, The New York Times reported that their arrest "led to the clearing up of fifteen restaurant hold-ups."
Alice Mendow, who occupied a room here the following year, also found herself behind bars. A member of the Communist Party, the 21-year-old attended a protest meeting at Second Avenue and 12th Street on October 14, 1932. The New York Times reported it, "developed into a free-for-all," saying "fifty policemen, swinging fists and clubs, tried to disperse a mob of 500 angry 'Reds.'" Among those arrested was Alice Mendow.
In a summer day in 1941, the exterior parlor shutters were closed and canvas awnings shielded the sun. The original areaway ironwork, which matched the stoop railings, was intact. via the NYC Dept of Records & Information Services.
Author and editor Geza Garrison Gaspar lived here as early as 1950. Born in Hungary in 1887, he arrived in the United States in 1920. While living here he was the editor of a Hungarian-American newspaper Amerikai Magyar Nepazava, and in 1950 published Science, Conscience and God.
Owner Nicklaus Mohr sold 333 East 18th Street (described as a "three-story rooming house" by The New York Times) in June 1965 to Crosby Wells. The newspaper said he, "plans two duplex apartments, one of which he will occupy." Instead, the renovation resulted in a duplex in the basement and parlor level, and one apartment each on the second and third floors.
In 1975, resident Andre Dodi opened a cooking class in his apartment. Dodi trained at the Cordon Bleu in Paris and at Le Pavillon under Henri Soule. Before opening his class here, he was the private chef to the Uzielli family here in New York City.
The New York Times described his four-class course in 1975 as emphasizing, "practicality and short cuts to classic cooking in Northern Italian and French cuisines." The course cost $60 and "includes meals and wines," said the article.
Two years later, on September 14, 1977, The Times food critic Mimi Sheraton commented that Chef Dodi, "is more of a showman than a precise teacher and often shows impatience with students' questions."
photograph by Ted Leather
Crosby Wells owned and occupied 333 East 18th Street at least through the mid-1980s. A renovation completed in 2002 returned it to a single-family home. At some point the brick facade was painted and the Italianate areaway ironwork replaced with a commendable attempt at period accuracy.
many thanks to reader Ted Leather for suggesting this post
.png)
No comments:
Post a Comment